Youth Radio Honored With 2018 Gracie Award

Youth Radio Honored With 2018 Gracie Award

Youth Radio is proud to announce its latest award for student-led reporting.

The series “That’s When My Childhood Ended” has been honored with a 2018 Gracie Award for News Feature – Non Commercial by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, which recognizes “exemplary programming created by women, for women and about women in all facets of media and entertainment.” Youth Radio is joined by fellow 2018 Gracie Award winners “60 Minutes,” CNN, ABC News, VICE News, and more.

In this four-part series, a team of young women report from across America. Going inside high schools where young people grapple with the effects of teen suicide, sexual harassment, and racism, Valencia White, Charlie Stuip, Zola Cervantes, and Sasha Armbrester take you beyond the political upheaval around immigration to reveal how the system falls short — particularly for young women.

The toll that America’s deportation program takes on families is the theme of Zola Cervantes’ personal essay With A Deported Father, California Teen Lives Life Between Borders. Cervantes, a reporter with Youth Radio partner Boyle Heights Beat, reveals the adult responsibilities she stepped into to support her mother (abruptly thrust into single-parenthood) as well as the pain she endures being separated from her father who was deported to Mexico when she was a child. Produced by Youth Radio in collaboration with Boyle Heights Beat.

Finally in I’m A Cheerleader, Here’s Why I Take A Knee, Sasha Armbrester reveals why she and her fellow cheerleaders started taking a knee at her school in Union City, California, and continued to do so, even when football players stood, and despite pushback from parents and some members of the community.

Taken together, this series reveals what it means to be a young woman at a profoundly polarized moment in America.

Check out the links below to listen to and read these stories by and about young women who are determined to step up in a deeply flawed world, and see more of Youth Radio’s award-winning reporting on the Awards page.